1. "A Time Capsule"
Posted by edisto on Jul-2nd-02 at 11:56 AM

Some months ago, I bought a lot of Victorian books at an antiques auction.  Included with them was a small notebook, about 4"x7" and bound at the top.  It was used as an account book by someone, beginning on January 1st, 1891.  I don't think the owner was very faithful about keeping his/her accounts, because the book was used sporadically until 1906.  Tucked into it is a tax receipt dated March 29, 1907, issued to someone named Bates from Prairie Township, Keokuk County, Iowa.  I  think the owner was probably female, although some of the expenses seem to be for a male.  Here are some of them:
                    Jan. 1, 1891:
                      1 Pr. Rubbers (!)     $ .40
                      Corset                 1.00
                      12 yd. Cal. $.8 (!)     .96
                      Windsor tie             .20
                      Sundries                .15
                      Missionary pennies      .12
                      Tablet                  .25
                      Glycerine               .10
                      Tooth powder            .12-l/2
                      Tooth filling          6.00
                      Cologne                 .18
                      Ruching                 .40
(I have no idea how to get the columns to come out straight; they're straight when I type them but come out crooked.)

...and on it goes.  Clearly, this person found a "cheap sale of dress goods."  There are frequent "missionary" entries, and almost as often "tooth filling" appears.  The person's doctor bill for 1892 was $40.00, and the dentist bill for 1893 was $35.00.  Elocution lessons cost $6.00.  Kind of a little time capsule reflecting what things actually cost at the time of the Borden murders.

If you use a fixed font size (Courier?) they will display as typed.
Or use tabulation.

That's *unexceptional*, Edisto!

In the 1800's the word "unexceptional" meant "exceptional", or better than exceptional...

Our Lizzie, it was noted in the papers during the beginning of the trial, had had a lot of dental work done( prepatory to her *appearance* on the world stage?).

If Andrew didn't like to pay a doctor, maybe he also didn't like paying for a dentist!  Is this why Lizzie's teeth don't show in her numerous photo's?
She might have hightailed it to the dentist as soon as she had the money.
Those dental prices you quoted seem as high as nowadays!

Kat, while Lizzie was in Taunton she had dental work done?  Or, was this after the trial?  Do you suppose like most people they just assumed losing one's teeth with age was natural and she had them pulled and fitted with dentures?  What was done exactly or is that all it says, dental work?  I'm intrigued!  Can you tell? 

After I posted that (Which I remember reading)  I spent a little time trying to find it..no go, so far.

I recall the mention of a gleam about her teeth and wondering if she had gold put in.

Great!  Now I have an image in my mind of a gold toothed Lizzie talking with a Basten accent and sounding like Emeril Lagasse!
"Her voice has a peculiar guttural harshness."- New York Herald , Aug. 7, 1892.

Wow, thats the first time I've ever heard anything refering to how Lizzie sounds!  Guttural harshness, hmmmmm.  Maybe she did sound like Emeril?  Do you imagine our Lizzie with gold tooth caps on her front teeth? 

I remember reading someplace that Lizzie had a lot of gold in her teeth, but I don't know at what point in her life that was.  I believe the reference was in either Lincoln's book or one of the "novelized" Lizzie books. I too thought the doctor and dentist bills were high in that little account book, but they may have been an entire year's bills.  I think we discussed, maybe on the "other" board, the fact that Lizzie never showed her teeth in pictures.  She wasn't alone.  There are many, many pictures of people in the three "Victorian Vistas" books, and I've noticed only one person with a toothy grin.  He appears to be a young man in his late teens or early twenties, who is posing with a party of young ladies in a horsecar.  Since he's the only guy in the group, he probably had reason to smile and couldn't contain himself.

If they had a low sugar consumption, and brushed after eating (remember Andy doing this in the AM?), their teeth would have been quite well preserved. IMO

Yet Andrew and Abby both had dentures, I think full uppers or something, thats from the autopsy reports. 

Oh that's right.  Good memory Susan!

So they must have shelled out to the dentist after all.  Andrew couldn't very well have his and Abby's teeth fixed and not the girls.  Maybe Lizzie wanted something special done?

I always wondered why those false uppers didn't fall out and lay there in the photo's of the crime scenes...

Happy July Fourth!

Really, as far as I know there was no such thing as Poligrip fixative or anything, I wondered that too, as Andrew's upper lip was split open.  I would think after breaking some of the "teeth" that the plate would have come out or something.  Its amazing to think that false teeth have been around for so long, even George Washington had a set!